GB2140282A

GB2140282A - Drawer mounting arrangements

Info

Publication number: GB2140282A
Application number: GB08410852A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Erich Rock
Original assignee: Julius Blum GmbH
Current assignee: Julius Blum GmbH
Priority date: 1983-05-03
Filing date: 1984-04-27
Publication date: 1984-11-28
Also published as: ATA161483A; GB2140282B; IT8406722V0; DE3414335A1; JPS60132514A; JPH0342084B2; US4601522A; GB8410852D0; DE3414335C2; AT386938B

Description

1 GB 2 140 282A 1

SPECIFICATION

A pull-out guide assembly for drawers or the like The invention relates to a pull-out guide assembly for drawers or the like, comprising on each side a pull-out rail at the side of the drawer and a supporting rail at the side of the body, the load being transmitted from the pull-out rails to the supporting rails by means of slides or rollers, and the pull-out rails and the supporting rails having a lateral track guide.

In longest known pull-out guide assemblies, 80 rollers or slides are mounted at the support ing- and pull-out rails which transmit the load of the drawer from the pull-out rails onto the supporting rails, and which reduce the friction of parts moved towards one another, when 85 the drawer is displaced.

According to the state of the art, two fur ther kinds of pull-out guide assemblies are known in which the rollers are not directly fastened to one of the rails but arranged in a separate roller carrier. The best known are the so-called ball roller pull-out guides in which the load is transmitted between the rails by means of steel balls which are held in a roller carrier designed as a roller cage.

Said pull-out guidgs are very precise, i.e.

they ensure excellent running of the drawer and permit at the same time a good fit of the drawer in the body, i.e. the drawer is laterally as well as vertically guided in a very stable manner. Such pull-out guide assemblies are mounted, in particular, into high-quality furni ture, e.g. office furniture.

The disadvantage of such pull-out guide assemblies is that the rails must have compli cated profiles to define the rolling tracks for the balls. It is a further disadvantage that such pull-out guide assemblies provide no self-clos ing effect. So, a drawer which has not been correctly closed is not automatically fully pulled into the body but remains in the half open position.

The other kind of pull-out guide assemblies has been on the market for a short time only and has cylindrical rollers, namely of the same kind as normally mounted directly at the rails.

Said pull-out guide assemblies also have very good running properties and can easily be provided with automatic closing means but their stability, in particular the lateral stability of the known pull-out guide, is not satisfac tory. In the past, such pull-out guides have therefore been provided with lateral slides.

This solution has never proved entirely satis factory because it provides lateral alignment for the drawer in the inserted position only, but does not enhance the lateral stability of the drawer when the latter-mentioned is being pulled out.

It is the object of the invention to provide a 130 pull-out guide assembly which has the advantages of ball guiding means with respect to lateral stability as well as the advantages of a pull-out guide assembly with cylindrical rollers or slides, i.e. simple rail profiles, and that a draw-in effect for a not fully closed drawer can easily be achieved. It is an essential advantage of pull-out guide assemblies with rollers that the rollers may be of plastic which permits coating of the rails. Steel balls would damage the coating.

According to the invention this is achieved in that one of the supporting rails at one side of the drawer is fixed to the furniture body, while the other supporting rail at the other side of the drawer is laterally movably, preferably in a resilient manner, fastened to the furniture body, for example by means of flaps punched out of the fastening flange of the supporting rail.

Hence, it is possible to make the pull-out guide assembly according to the invention absolutely laterally stable and to allow, nevertheless, certain tolerances in the construction of the piece of furniture. The resilient supporting rail is able to adapt itself within this relatively wide range of tolerances. The supporting rail is in this arrangement pulled to the drawer by the associated pull- out rail.

An embodiment of the invention provides that the pull-out rails and the supporting rails have limiting flanges at the free edge of their running flanges, said limiting flanges abutting the rollers, and each rail advantageously hav- ing one limiting flange only.

An advantageous embodiment of the invention provides that roller carriers are arranged between the supporting rails and the pull-out rails, the rollers being superjacently mounted on said roller carrier, and either the upper and lower of said rollers being laterally guided by the rails and their limiting flanges, while the other rollers have no lateral stops.

To improve the distribution of forces, it is further advantageously provided that the rollers which are laterally guided by the rails have the shapes of truncated cones at their front sides.

An embodiment of the invention provides that the pull-out rails which have an upper and a lower running flange have an angular flange portion at their central connecting flange adjacent to a running flange.

Mounting of the pull-up rails at the drawers is advantageously effected by fastening the pull-out rails to the drawer side walls by means of fastening screws which extend through said furniture side walls, rest with their heads against the inner surfaces of said drawer side walls and engage in the female thread in or at the pull-out rail.

It is thus possible, when manufacturing or assembling the piece of furniture, to cornpletely fasten each side of the pull-out guide assembly, i.e. supporting rail and pull-out rail, 2 GB 2 140 282A 2 to the furniture side wall. Then the drawer is fitted onto the pull-out rail, and by means of the fastening screws the drawer is, on one side, rigidly connected to the stable side, i.e.

to the fixed side, of the pull-out guide assembly, and on the other side, the pull-out rail can together with the supporting rail, which is held by said pull-out rail directly or indirectly by means of the rollers, be pulled against the drawer side wall.

When using rollers which are mounted in a separate roller carrier it has proved advantageous to arrange the rollers in the corners of a rectangle. Due to the fact that the rollers, between which the running flange and the supporting rail are received, are directly superjacently arranged it is prevented that the running flange of the supporting rail is unintentionally pulled out laterally between the rol- lers.

Below an embodiment of the invention will be described in more detail with reference to the figures of the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 shows a schematic side view of a pull-out guide with the drawer in the extracted position, and Figure 2 shows a sectional view along line 1-1 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 shows that side of the pull-out guide assembly on which the supporting rail 1 can with its running flanges 11 be pulled away from the furniture side wall 6. The supporting rail 1 on the other side of the drawer is analogously designed, only that no fastening flaps 7 are provided and that, hence, the supporting rail 1 is with its fastening flange 1' indirectly screwed to the furniture side wall 6 by means of screws 8.

The pull-out rail 2 as well as the roller carriers 3 are designed in an analogous man- 105 ner on both sides of the pull-out guide assembly.

As can be seen in Fig. 2, the supporting rails 1 have a lower V-shaped region defined by an angular portion 9 and a limiting flange 10 together with the running flange 11. At the supporting rail 1 the limiting flange 10 is upwardly directed.

The pull-out rails 2 have a corresponding upper region which is also formed by a limit- ing flange 21, a running flange 22 and an angular portion 23. Said regions receive in between the upper rollers 4 of the roller carriers 3.

By means of the limiting flanges 10, 21 120 and the angular portions 9, 23, the rollers 4 are also laterally held between the supporting rails 1 and the pull-out rails 2, or lateral forces may also be exerted by the supporting rails 1 via the rollers 4 on the pull-out rail 2 and vice 125 versa.

As can also be seen in Fig. 2, the front sides of the upper rollers 4 are truncated cones so that inclined lateral running faces 4' the one side, at the limiting flanges 10, 21 and, on the other side, at the angular portions 9, 23.

At their lower sides the pull-out rails 2 are provided with flanges 24 which are open towards the body wall 25.

The lower rollers 5 of the roller carriers 3 are cylindrical, they do not absorb lateral forces but serve exclusively for the vertical transmission of load. The width b of all rollers 4 is equal.

The pull-out rails 2 are located in grooves 26 in the drawer side walls 25.

Fastening screws 27 are provided which project through holes 28 in the drawer side walls 25 and engage in female threads 29 in the connecting flanges 30 of the pull-out rails 2. XThe connecting flange 30 is the flange connecting the running flanges 22, 24 of the pull-out rail 2).

For mounting, a supporting rail 1, a pull-out rail 2 and a roller carrier 3 form a unit, each. The two units are fastened to the furniture side wall 6 by means of the supporting rail 1 in a conventional manner, for example by means of screws 8.

Then the drawer is fitted onto the pull-out rails 2 and fastened by means of fastening screws 27. When the fastening screws 27 are fastened, the drawer is (in the embodiment), on the one side, pulled to the right pull-out rail 2, and, on the other side, the left pull-out rail 2 and the supporting rail 1 by means of the rollers 4 of the roller carrier 3 are pulled to the drawer, said pulling of the supporting rail 1 being possible because of the fastening by means of the flaps 7.

In the embodiment, the pull-out is provided with front and rear stops 31 which are formed by angular portions of the running flanges 22, 24 and the supporting rail 1 has front and rear stops 32, thus preventing that the parts of the pull-out guide assembly are separated.. It is thus also prevented that the drawer is unintentionally fully pulled out of the furniture body and of the guiding of the supporting rail 1.

Claims

1. A pull-out guide assembly for drawers or the like, comprising on each side a pull-out rail at the side of the drawer and a supporting rail at the side of the body, the load being transmitted from the pull-out rails to the supporting rails by means of slides or rollers, and the pull-out rails and the supporting rails having a lateral track guide, wherein one of said supporting rails at one side of the drawer is fixed to the furniture body, while the other of said supporting rails at the other side is laterally movable, preferably in a resilient manner, fastend to the furniture body, for example by means of flaps punched out of the fastening flange of said supporting rail.

are obtained. Said running faces 4' move, on 130

2.A pull-out guide assembly as claimed in 4

3 GB 2 140 282A 3 claim 1, wherein said pull-out rails and said supporting rails have limiting flanges at the free end of their running flanges, said flanges abutting said rollers. 5 3. A pull-out guide assembly as claimed in claim 2, wherein each of said rails has one limiting flange only.

4. A pull-out guide assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein roller carriers are arranged between said supporting rails and said pullout rails, said rollers superjacently mounted on said roller carriers, either the upper of said rollers or the lower of said rollers being laterally guided by said rails and by their limiting flanges, while the other of said rollers have no lateral stops.

A pull-out guide assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein said rollers laterally guided by said rails are truncated cones at their front sides.

6. A pull-out guide assembly as claimed in claim 1. wherein said pull-out rails having an upper and a lower running flange have an angular flange portion at their central connect- ing flange adjacent to a running flange.

7. A pull-out guide assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said pull-out rails are fastened to the drawer side walls by means of fastening screws extending through said drawer side walls, resting with their heads against the inner surfaces of said drawer side I walls and engaging in the female thread in or at said pull-out rails.

8. A pull-out guide assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein said rollers are arranged in the corners of a rectangle.

9. A pull-out guide assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying draw- ings.

Printed in the United Kingdom for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Dd 8818935, 1984, 4235. Published at The Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings, London. WC2A lAY, from which copies may be obtained.